Ex-Chase Bank director heads State enterprise financier KIE

A former top executive director of the troubled Chase Bank, now under joint management of the deposit insurer and KCB, is at the helm of a key State enterprise financier only months after turbulence stalled the lender.

Industrialisation secretary Adan Mohamed a few months back appointed Parmain ole Narikae the chief executive officer of the Kenya Industrial Estates (KIE).

Mr Narikae, who also doubles as a board member at the multibillion-shilling Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority, was the director of external and regulatory affairs at Chase Bank when it went bust early this year.

The second-tier bank re-opened in late April after it was unexpectedly placed under receivership by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on April 7 owing to liquidity problems created by a run on its deposits.

Mr Mohamed appointed Mr Narikae under the State Corporations Act (Cap. 446) in Gazette notice number 6784.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by the State Corporations Act, the Cabinet Secretary for Industry, Trade and the Co-operatives appoints—Parmain ole Narikae to be the chief executive officer of the Kenya Industrial Estates Ltd, for a period of three years, with effect from the 5th September, 2016,” said Mr Mohamed in the notice dated August 3, 2016.

Mr Narikae’s post at Chase Bank charged him with the administrative co-ordination of the various functions “towards the realisation of Bank’s objectives as well as the development of capabilities of personnel in the Bank.”

In addition, he was also the chairman of the Chase Group Foundation, whose aim, according to the brief on the bank’s website, “is to facilitate giving back to the nation through initiatives that contribute to the development of various sectors of the Kenyan society”.